


Lasting Pain May Occur

by Cojiko



Category: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, He got friggin IMPALED once, Hurt as in physical hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing at Midnight, Krillin Has Scars, One Shot, Scars, Short One Shot, Sleepy Cuddles, Why wouldn't he?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 11:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20777975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cojiko/pseuds/Cojiko
Summary: Are years-old scars supposed to suddenly hurt again?





	Lasting Pain May Occur

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thing I came up with on a whim

Krillin wasn’t sure if some scars should still hurt even when years have passed since their births. Mental and emotional scars? Yeah, makes sense if they start bugging you years after the fact. But physical scars? Old wounds from battles that ended a long, long time ago? Those shouldn’t have any sort of pain attached to it anymore, especially not on _this_ level.

“Ack…! Sh-Shit…!”

The pain came suddenly. No warning aches or anything. A hot, burning sensation just randomly popped up in the dead of night and disrupted Krillin’s rest. It just had to come from his abdomen too, one of the short fighter’s more tender and sensitive spots. He tried to ignore it and go back to sleep at first, but over time the throbbing sensation just became nigh unbearable. Unable to take it anymore, Krillin carefully and quietly got out of bed, so to not wake the sleeping beauty that was his wife, then walked over to the bathroom.

He tried looking in the cupboards and cabinets for one of those hot water bottles, but no such luck. Probably made sense, since those would hypothetically be placed in the kitchen for storage. But Krillin couldn’t be bothered to walk all the way there. He wanted a quick solution to this damn pain and by God, he was going to get it one way or another. Fortunately, a few more seconds of rummaging did net him one idea; ibuprofen. It ain’t Senzu beans, but they worked fine enough. Just pop one or two tablets in, drink some water, and let the magic happen.

Well, Krillin managed to get to step two of that process before a sleepy voice pierced the dead silence.

“Babe…? What’re you doing?”

There in the doorway stood a lightly-clothed Android 18, looking like she hadn’t just been asleep for five hours, as always. She sounded half-asleep, but her stance was anything but. At least her expression, though mostly neutral, still held a few subtle lines of concern and groggy confusion.

“E-Eighteen! You’re awake.”

“No duh. You made it hard to with all the rattling in here. What’s going on?”

Krillin’s face went from startled to flustered. “It’s nothing, just needed some ibuprofen. That’s all.”

Eighteen cocked an eyebrow. “Okay…And why did you need ibuprofen? Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine, really! It’s just an annoying little ache. It’s nothing serious, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Krillin tried to play this off like it really was nothing, but Eighteen knew better. She could practically read the situation by her husband’s face alone that this wasn’t something like a headache.

“Hey, let me see it.” Eighteen promptly ordered.

“S-See what?”

“You know what, you dolt. Show me where this ‘ache’ is.”

A few seconds of silence pass by before Krillin relented to his wife’s demands, allowing her to lift his shirt and expose his abdomen. Another few seconds of silence then pass before Eighteen grew an annoyed look.

“Krillin, did you even bother checking this out at all?” The answer to that is _no_. No, he absolutely did not.

“Uh, n-no, I guess not…” Looking down, Krillin immediately understood why he probably should’ve done that. On the right side of his stomach, right around where a kidney is located, there was a relatively large patch of red, inflamed skin. Upon closer inspection, Krillin remembered the significance of that patch of skin.

That spot was where he’d been injured back on Namek…When Frieza impaled him upon one of his horns and flailed him about. Though Dende had healed him in time, that wound still left a bad scar on both his abdomen and on his back where the horn had emerged from. As the years passed, the scars did eventually grow faint though you could still feel their rough texture if you ran a hand over them.

Funnily enough, that was exactly what Eighteen did next. She gently placed a hand on the red patch, trying her best to not irritate it further. It didn’t seem to matter, though. Her touch still elicited a pained wince from Krillin.

“Sorry,” Eighteen apologized, promptly pulling her hand back.

“I-It’s fine, babe. Compared to what we’ve seen so far, this is nothing!” Is it really nothing, Krillin? Is scar tissue suddenly inflaming and causing pain nothing to worry about?

“I don’t know, Krillin. Maybe we should see a doctor about this…”

“Oh, come on. You don’t need to-” But Eighteen smothered her husband’s insistence with a firm kiss. She considered just plopping her hand over her dolt’s mouth, but that might’ve sent off the wrong message…maybe, I dunno. It wasn’t a long one, quickly over with after four seconds. Once she pulled away, Eighteen's expression went from subtle concern to subtle seriousness. I know it's hard to tell, but trust me on this, she was serious right now.

“I know that we’ve got Senzu beans, but can we try getting a second opinion before popping one in? You know they can’t fix everything.”

Krillin sighed. Eighteen was right, those magic beans can’t solve every physical problem he could have. After all, didn’t Goku’s heart virus get worse after taking a Senzu? What if what Krillin’s dealing with ends up like that? This could go from burning in one spot to burning all over…

“Okay, babe. I’ll make an appointment in the morning.”

Eighteen smiled softly, a rare sight for most people who weren’t Krillin. “Thank you. Now, did you still need something for your side?”

“Ice pack, water bottle, whatever you think’ll work. I just want to get back to sleep.”

“I’ll see what I can find.” Before exiting the bathroom, Eighteen placed a small peck onto her husband’s cheek. “Meet you in bed,” She whispered.

Watching her walk out of the room, Krillin couldn’t help but think; _(How did someone as amazing as her ever marry me?)_

There could be a million answers to that question or there might only be one. There could also be no answer, but that’s _highly_ unlikely after everything the couple had been through. But now’s not the time to focus on what that answer could be.

\- - -

Not long after he’d returned to the bedroom, Krillin heard a soft click and the creak of a door followed by a familiar hand placing an ice pack next to him.

“Here you go, babe,”

“Thanks, Eighteen.”

Having the scar touch something still made the short man wince, though the pain eventually evened out as the ice did its job. Everything was almost back to the way it had been thirty minutes ago. But it felt like something was missing…

Oh, wait, there it is! It was Eighteen snuggling up to Krillin from behind, with her hands snaking their way around her husband’s torso and pulling him into a sleepy hug. Normally, it would’ve been by his waist, but a certain inflammation was currently being a dick about that.‌ Whatever the case, Krillin was happy with it and that’s all that mattered…to Eighteen, anyway.

“Goodnight, Eighteen.”

“G’night, babe…”

With that, the two finally drifted back to sleep. That scar business looks pretty iffy, but hopefully that all pans out well. Can’t worry about it when you’re asleep, after all!


End file.
